Carpet Cleaning and Restoration Blog

Some stains require you to be creative. That is why we offer these creative thoughts to our customers to use in case they faced a similar situation.

Finding the best way to clean your carpet includes finding the best method and the best carpet cleaner. Most of the carpet stains can be removed using simple house cleaning products such as water, white vinegar, dish-washing liquids, a towel and the usage of standard household clothing iron can remove almost any carpet stain. Think of any kind of stain such as dark juices, wine spots, candle wax spots or any other stains; standard household clothing iron can deal with it perfectly. To learn how to use standard household clothing iron as a carpet cleaner, read this guide.

1. The Usage of White Vinegar and Water Solution as a carpet Cleaner:Follow the following steps.• Use you vacuum in order to remove any loose dirt at the area that you are about to clean.• Plug your iron where you will work. Set the iron on the highest degree of steam you have.• Use an empty bottle of spray. Fill it with a mixture of white vinegar and water. The ratio between water and vinegar is determined according to the stain. The ideal ratio is 1 part of white vinegar to 3 parts of water. • Make a damp using a white cotton rag or towel. The rag or the towel should be large enough; it should cover the whole stain. Wring it after putting it in warm water and you will have a damp.• Spray the vinegar then place the damp over the stain.• Iron the stain slightly.

2. The Usage of Dishwashing Liquid and Water Solution as a carpet Cleaner: Follow the following steps.• Plug your iron where you will work. Set the iron on the lowest degree of steam you have.• Use a combination of concentrated liquid dish-washing soap and warm water as a carpet cleaner. Add 5 to 6 drops of the soap to 2 cups of the water in a small bucket.• Make a damp using a white cotton rag or towel. The rag or the towel should be large enough; it should cover the whole stain. Wring it after putting it in warm water and you will have a damp.• Place the damp all over the stain and put the iron over it.• Leave the iron at the lowest level over the stain for about 15 minutes or until the stain is completely removed depending on the size of it.

We have been in the cleaning industry for a while and we know that there are many myths about our services. In this guide we will share our customers some of the most common myths in the janitorial services.

People make myths look like facts and the ones who are about to start their janitorial agencies always make high expectations according to these myths. The following points will include the most common myths regarding janitorial services so if you are about to start your business, read them well.

1. Why People think that Ammonia and Bleach are the best? This is not true.• Ammonia is a good cleaner but making it one of the best cleaners is a mistake; it is just a good cleaner that has many health problems associated to it such as skin rashes, respiratory diseases, allergies, in addition to its offensive odor.• Let’s make it cleaner and say that bleach is not a cleaner. If you used bleach as cleaning product, you will discover that it is useless. It just kills bacteria and harmful organisms. It is also harmful to us; it won’t kill us of course but it can be toxic.

2. More Chemicals mean cleaner! That is not true. That is another myth created by cleaning products companies and markets to sell more and more. Using more chemicals can be harmful to whatever you are cleaning such as upholstery and carpets. Also the usage of more chemicals will leave some of it with the carpet which will collect more dirt within the carpet or the upholstery which will make them dirty again.

3. All Cleaning agencies are the same: That is considered one of the most common myths among both customers and people who are about to start their janitorial services businesses. There are many different between cleaning services such as the following points.• The equipment used by each agency is different. Some businesses use eco-friendly product while others use old cleaning methods. The best are who stay updated with the latest technological features in addition to keeping using effective methods.• The skills of the staff differ.• The experience level differs from an agency to another. More experience means higher quality of the services.• The best companies are which have trained employers. The training courses differ. Some companies focus on the skills, other focus on the speed of the services. Some agencies provide its staff with training courses in public health.

Choosing the best upholstery cleaner is always an issue especially when it comes to leather upholstery. Leather upholstery cleaners say that leather cleaning is not the same as any kind of material. There are a lot of ways to clean leather but the best way is to hire a professional leather upholstery cleaner that know what to do with different stains.

The possibility that you may damage the leather upholstery is high while the possibility of the professional leather upholstery cleaner to damage the leather upholstery is low unless unexpected accident happened.

Discoloration of the leather upholstery, sustaining scratches or scars, loss its supple texture, soaking up body oils, and sustaining punctures are all permanent damages that may happen to the leather upholstery if you are not professional enough to handle it.

These tips will show you how professional leather upholstery cleaners are the best to deal with your problem.

1. The Material: The following points will tell you what you need to know about the material.

• Leather is unique even when it is stained. Certain kinds of stains and wear affect it in addition to that it is a naturally absorbent; it soaks up the oils of the body.• Any small damage like a slight scratch can be noticeable.• The first step to prevent any damage from happening to your leather upholstery is to be careful around it.• Any severe damage can be removed by professional upholstery cleaners.• The leather needs to be cleaned and vacuumed well before starting cleaning it.• Cleaning leather is essential because you will be able to get rid of any dirt that may interfere with cleaning the upholstery.• Professional leather upholstery cleaners will use water and a small amount of detergent manually to clean up afterwards to keep the leather integrity.

2. The Guarantees:Professional cleaners have a certain way to deal with any kind of damages regarding leather. Whether it is a stain, a scratch, a discoloration or a puncture, they will repair the damage. The next point will tell you how the process will work.

3. How does the cleaning process go? The first thing that will be done is the abrasion with a special abrasion surface; this is done gently. The first step is essential to remove any discoloration and prepare the leather to be restored.

The heavy body oils are removed by a special way. Professional cleaners use special absorbent chemicals which penetrate into the leather and remove the oil by soaking it up. The oil and the detergent make special thickening layer that can be removed gently.

If the oil is not repeated by the first attempt, they repeat until the oil is completely removed. The drying process may take few hours but it is the most effective way.

After the treatment of the area, some special chemicals are applied to the damaged area. If the damage is discoloration, a dye matches the color of the leather is applied.

Professional cleaning agents are the best to restore your leather upholstery.

Always Preferred provides its customers with this guide to help the people of Missoula to understand some of the services that should be offered by fire damage restoration services.

Fire damage is considered one of the worst experiences that you may suffer from for a long time due to the complications of the fire damage. Things like the odor, the smoke and any other complication of fire damages are not easy to deal with and may affect the integrity of the whole building.

For example, smoke odor will invade every single area of the house and will stick to your personal belongings too. The soot of the smoke may lead to severe damages to the walls of the building which were not burned by the fire. The experience of fire damage is really devastating and you will need professional fire damage restoration services to restore your place and help you get through this tough situation.

Be prepared to this tough situation by having the number of fire damage restoration agency that can deal with the situation professionally.

1. Before Deodorization:Regarding the odor of the smoke, here is what professional fire damage restoration services have to accomplish before deodorization.

• The cleaning process has three phases which are structural cleaning, contents cleaning and deodorization.• Structural cleaning means the cleaning of the walls and the woodwork of the whole building or house. It is the first step to get your house as clean as it was before the fire damage. It depends on how bad the fire damage is so the price of this step varies according to the type of tools that will be used and the effort that will be exerted by the cleaning agents.• Contents Cleaning means cleaning of things like the furniture and upholstery. Professional fire damage restoration services agents know what to do regarding the fire damage of such things so your items will be restored somehow.

2. Deodorization: After the two previous steps, deodorization comes. Deodorization means the removal of the odor of the smoke. There are two ways to remove the odor after fire damage.

• The first way is to remove the odor without eliminating its sources. It is not effective but cheaper.• The second way is to remove the sources of the odor. It is more expensive but it will terminate the odor completely.

3. Additional Services: The following services are offered by professional fire damage restoration services.

• Board-ups:This aims to protect your building from being entered by strangers and to protect it from bad weather changes too.

• Inventory:This aims to make categorize your items into three categories which are salvageable, non-salvageable, and questionable in order to help you save what may be saved and getting rid of what can’t be saved anymore.

• Move-outs:If your furniture should be moved out in order to keep its integrity, the restoration services offer you to move out your furniture and any other items to a safe place to keep its integrity.

• Artwork:If you have some valuable artwork that is damaged by the fire, the restoration services will offer you a conservator who will be able to restore your artwork.

Water damage restoration experts say that the best step to start working on water damage at a residence is to make the owners of the place act fast and deal with the damage until water damage restoration agents come and deal with the damages professionally. Water damages can lead to serious complications; that is why water damage restoration experts advise people to follow the following tips.

1. After a Flood:Follow the following steps after a flood.• If the cause of the flood is a burst pipe or a failure of water heater, turn off the main water line for your residence. Call water damage restoration services as soon as possible. • Shut down the power by cutting off the electricity and gas from their main sources. It is essential whether the leak is small or large to do this step as all it takes is one drop to cause a disaster. It is better to have an electrician to handle shutting off in case you have standing water.• You need to assess the damage in order to know how much money you will pay for the water damage restoration service. Take some pictures for the insurance company.• Save your most valuable possessions and remove any valuable items. Don’t waste time cleaning anything; just rescue everything first.

2. Get Rid of Standing Water:When the water sits for a long time, the damages will be disastrous. Here are some tips that you should follow in order to get rid of any standing water.• When everything is safe, start pumping out any standing water.• When you deal with a natural flood, wait until the water of the flood have receded below your place. • You need to wear protective gear while working in your flooded house. Wear rubber boots, gloves, and a mask or respirator.• You need to keep your kids and pets away from the standing water. Any standing water is contaminated and may be harmful to your kids and pets.• The place of the pump should be at the lowest spot of the area affected by the flooded water.• The usage of a wet-dry vacuum is the best solution for small amount of flooding.

3. Mold and Mildew:Mold need water damage restoration services experts to deal with it. You need to assess mold for your insurance company and to help the water damage restoration agents. Follow the following steps.• Mold can grow anywhere. It can be visible and it can grow in air ducts, between walls, rafters, and crawl spaces.• If mold is not visible, find any noticeable must earth smell. If there is any, then there is invisible mold undetected.• Mildew and mold develop within 48 hours after exposure to moisture.• Turn off the power as mold will make any wires or cables wet which is extremely dangerous.• Dry the area out before mold spreads to other areas and becomes hard to remove by water damage restoration agents. When mold stays for long time, it will invade more areas and become uncontrollable.• Don’t use fans to dry out the place as they may spread the spores of the mold to new places.

You may ask why would a school or a university requires a professional janitorial services agency that is specialized in educational facilities to handle its cleanliness? With the large number of students, teachers and other people, you need a professional janitorial services agency that is specialized in cleaning these kinds of facilities. The quality of the services should be high as an outbreak of a disease in such communities can be disastrous.

The best educational janitorial services develop specific procedures to make sure that your school and university is as clean as possible to prevent any chance of diseases.

If you are in charge of a school or a university and you want to hire a professional janitorial services agency to keep your area clean, look for a company that will analyze everything your place needs and has well-trained agents.

1. List of services provided by professional educational janitorial services:

Here is a list of the services provided by educational janitorial services.• Trash removal. Your students will produce a large amount of trash daily so you need to make sure that the janitorial services are capable of accomplishing this task daily.• Mopping of tile and linoleum floors.• Vacuuming of carpets and floor polishing. This should be done routinely as the large number of people will make the carpets dirty constantly and the floors will be affected too.• Cleaning of desks, and windows. Clean educational area will help both the students and the teacher to practice the educational process in a healthy atmosphere. • Bathroom cleaning and kitchen cleaning. These places are common places of infections and contaminations; keeping them clean regularly is essential.• Dusting and common area cleaning.• Office cleaning. You can choose certain services and charge for them; search well.

2. The characteristics of the best professional educational janitorial services:

Here is what you should look for when you choose the best agency to get your facility clean.• Experience. It is essential that the agents of the cleaning service know exactly how to clean a school or a university.• The high quality work.• The good communication between the cleaning agents and their management and between the agency and the management of the facility.• The ability to work in such crowded community like the school or the university. It is so hard so you should make sure that the agents are well-trained.• The cleaning agents should be well-trained and have some certifications on how to deal with educational facilities.• The commitment to the terms of the contract.You should choose a cleaning agency that has most of these features.

3. Outsourcing or Insourcing:

Outsourcing the janitorial needs of your school or university is not an easy decision to make. The best decision to make from the experts point of view is outsourcing as the in-house cleaning does not have the features that qualifies it to be suitable for cleaning an educational facility. You need high standards for the best of your students and teachers so choose well.

Sometimes people wonder if hiring professional upholstery cleaner worth it or they can handle the damages that happen to their upholstery by themselves. After reading this guide, you will be able to decide whether to hire professional upholstery cleaner or you should try to clean your upholstery by yourself.

People who have kids or pets or both will definitely need to hire professional upholstery cleaners to maintain the integrity of their furniture. People who don’t have kids or pet may damage their upholstery by spilling drinks over it. There are many guides that tell people how to clean every kind of stain but it is exhausting to search and apply the steps so why would you bother yourself with cleaning guides while you can hire professional certified upholstery cleaner to restore your upholstery?

Let’s see some specific points regarding hiring professional upholstery cleaners to help you decide.

1. Why should hire certified upholstery cleaners?The following points will tell why you should hire upholstery cleaners that are certified.• If you want your upholstery to last for a long time, then you should hire experts who know how to deal with different kinds of damages properly.• The usage of homemade chemicals and commercial products without the proper knowledge is not enough.• Sometimes when you try to handle the damage by yourself, you will treat the problem for a short term period then it will appear again.• The previous points show you why you should hire professional certified upholstery cleaner if you really want to clean your upholstery well.

2. The benefits of hiring certified professional upholstery cleaners:There are many benefits of hiring certified upholstery cleaners.• Training and education. Certified cleaners have many certifications that say that they can identify any type of stains easily.• They know the proper ways to deal with different kinds of upholstery. • They know the best upholstery cleaner product to use with each stain.• They know the proper tools and equipment to use.• They will tell you all the information about the integrity, the durability and maintenance of the upholstery.• They will give you valuable information about how to keep your upholstery clean and how to avoid stains and damages.

3. Tips for the maintenance of your upholstery:You should follow these tips to keep your upholstery clean.• According to the type of the material, vacuuming or cleaning your upholstery frequently is needed in order to keep the integrity of your upholstery.• Use arm caps on your upholstery. This way you will prolong the life span of the fabric.• The wear and tear process happens faster when you rotate the seat and the back cushions more often. • When you add a new piece of furniture, this means that your furniture will need to be cleaned especially vacuumed more often.• The manufacturing companies’ guides say that people should care for their upholstery once every two years in case there is not any kind of accidents happen in these two years.• If you have any kids or pets, the cleaning process should be more often.

Regular professional carpet cleaning is not preferable especially if you have a very valuable carpet that you want to keep its value so you need to know how to keep your carpet clean for a very long time. Professional carpet cleaning is kind of expensive especially if they are so valuable.

If you followed this guide, you will be able to keep your carpet clean may be for years. This guide will tell you how to prevent stains and how to prevent damages for a long time.

1. Regular carpet cleaning:

Follow the following steps to keep your carpet clean regularly.• Vacuuming your carpet regularly is the first step to get the dirt and debris out of it as the accumulation of dirt and debris causes long term problems.It is recommended to vacuum your carpet once a week covering all the areas of it.• Cover your carpet with baking soda before vacuuming as it absorbs bad odors, keeps the smell of the carpet fresh and makes your carpet look great. Don’t put too much baking soda on a certain area.• If you got a stain, deal with it as soon as possible. Apply your best carpet cleaning using the best method to get rid of it.• Professional carpet cleaning occasionally is necessary. It is kind of expensive but it will keep the integrity of the carpet. • Find the best professional carpet cleaning agency.

2. Prevention of Stains and Spills:

The following tips will help you to prevent stains.• The usage of rugs and runners is great especially the areas that are exposed to a lot of dirt and other contaminants. You can use it at certain areas like under a dining room table and the area where your kids usually play.• You have to train your pet to urinate outdoors or at a certain place. If your pet is not trained, use repellents. There are some commercial repellents but you can use white vinegar, lemon juice, rubbing alcohol as repellent agents.• Don’t walk over your carpet wearing your shoes. Remove your shoes when you enter your home and encourage your visitors and your family to do the same.• Any common source of stain should be kept away from the carpet; Wine, beverages, foods and juices are very common sources of stains.

3. Avoid Common Mistakes:

The following mistakes are so common and lead to a lot of stains.• Commercial carpet powders are used to eliminate the unpleasant odors but they leave residue in the carpet that damage the carpet over time.• Rubbing stains will spread it. It is better to blot the stains to remove them without spreading them. Sometimes you think that you are removing the stain while rubbing but you actually making it worse. • When you need to buy a carpet cleaner, don’t buy a cheap one as you will get what you pay for. Cheap carpet cleaners will leave dirt and debris within the carpet and even may cause a lot of damages.

Water damage restoration services offer their customers informative guides to help them deal with any kind of water damage in their houses. The best water damage restoration services will provide you with information in situations like home leaks, mold control, how to deal with water damage until water damage restoration experts arrive and other situations.

These tips will be provided to you by any water damage restoration agent regarding how to deal with leaks in order to save your residence and reduce the costs of repairing your place. Let’s see what experts say.

1. Hot Water Tanks:You need to check the pressure relief valve of the tank of hot water regularly because sometimes they are plumbed into a drain. They may be leaking while you have no idea. You will know that they are leaking when you are not able to remove the drain pipe in order to check for a leak. You will listen for a hissing sound when the valves are leaking.

2. Toilets:These steps will show you how to check your toilet for a leak.

• Remove the top off the tank and listen as close as you can. If you heard any hissing, try to locate its source.• After locating the source of the leak, assess it and determine whether you can fix it or not. If you are not able to fix it, call water damage restoration services and have an expert to deal with the problem professionally.• If you didn’t notice anything, put some food coloring with a couple of drops in the tank and wait about 5 minutes. If there is coloring in the bowl, then there is a leak in the flapper at the tank’s bottom. This leak is allowing water to seep through. Decide whether you can fix it by yourself or you need a water damage restoration expert.• Repeat if you have more toilets.

3. Meter Line:Here is how to check your line that is running from the meter to your place if there is no leak in toilets.

• If you have a shut-off valve, turn it off temporarily until you complete your check.• Check the meter. Remove the lid and watch the dial on meter’s top.• If there is any dirt or grass covering the top of the meter, dig around until you can see the meter head clearly. The valve is turned off so if there is any leak, it is between the house and the meter unless you have a leaking valve which is very common too.• To locate the area of the leak, walk the distance between the meter and the valve until you find a sign of leak.• The signs of leak are such as soft muddy area or grass greener than the rest or growing faster.

4. General tips:• Check your garden by looking at hoses, drip irrigation systems and taps. • If you have a swimming pool, call a water damage restoration services to check it for leaks.• Check your shower for leaks; it is a common area for leaks.

We here in Always Preferred Restoration want to offer comprehensive guides about carpets and carpet cleaning to our clients; and this a new chapter of our tips.

We all face carpet cleaning situations when we really need a guide to help us to get through the situation. One of these situations is when the carpet is wet. If the wet spot is not large and can be removed easily, you may remove the carpet from the floor and hang it outside until it dries completely but if the spot is large or you deal with wet-to-wall carpet or the carpet is large, then you need to try to dry it at its place using certain methods. Here are how to deal with this situation.

1. Drying out a Carpet Quickly:Follow the following steps to dry out your carpet.

• Spread some clean towels over the wet area of the carpet. In order to make the towels completely saturated, you will need to walk up and down the area. After that, remove the wet towels and replace them with dry ones and repeat.Notice that you should check that padding and the floor to make sure that they are not wet too.• Use a vacuum until you get no more water.• The wet vacuum cleaner will remove the water from the carpet but it can’t remove it from the padding.• Dump the tank before hitting overflow and it depends on the amount of water that is in the carpet so you may have to fill and refill the tank many times.• Encourage the moisture to evaporate along with using towels and the vacuum.

2. Drying a Wall-to-Wall Carpet:Follow the following steps.

• Move all the pieces of furniture off the wet carpet in order to lift up the carpet and check the pad and the floor underneath it.• Remove the furniture as fast as possible so you can start your carpet cleaning immediately. Also, leaving the furniture on a wet carpet will damage the furniture, the flooring and the carpet.• Try to remove as much of the water as you can.• Of course, you will not be able to take up the entire floor but you definitely should check underneath the carpet.• If you don’t have a vacuum that is capable of removing water, rent one. Don’t use the regular vacuum cleaner as it is not effective.• Check the water many times in the carpet and beneath it until you make sure that the carpet and the floor are completely dry.

3. Drying a Carpet in a Car:Follow the following steps to be able to clean your car carpet well.

• Deal with the car as soon as possible as the mold can take about 24 hours then grow. The mold will cause a lot of problems.• Locate the place of the leak as dealing with the carpets without locating the leak isn’t the smartest move.• Vacuum the carpet well.• Repeat until you get the carpets dry and stop the leak.